1) Sledding all winter long. Biker Boy and I actually bought our own sleds this year. We had been begging and borrowing sleds in the previous years, but our main source moved away, so we decided it was time for our own $12 investment for two sleds. We originally didn't buy sleds because, as in every single thing we buy, we had to consider the storage side of things. The sleds currently reside in the back of my truck and we're not entirely sure where they will end up once the winter is over.
We decided that this was the year for buying them mostly because when we moved this year, we moved mere blocks away from a fantastic sledding hill. Before we actually had to drive to a sledding hill, so we didn't get out more than once or twice a year. This year we're gonna go sledding every time it snows. (The last time we went out, it was like ten at night and I didn't see a jump that some enterprising folk had created and landed on it hard, injuring my tailbone. For two days I couldn't sit down without emitting a small moan, but man, it was totally worth it. Sledding at night with no one else on the hill was so much fun.)
2) Holidazzle parade every Thursday through Sunday in December. I love this parade. It's a free parade that goes through downtown Minneapolis. The first year Biker Boy and I dated, I talked about this parade for months and months before it actually happened. We've made it a tradition. We go downtown, window shop along Nicollet Mall, get some hot chocolate, hold hands through our mittened/gloved hands, and cheer for the little holiday lights walking down the street.
Yay! Light people!!
3) St. Paul Winter Carnival. Okay, I'm going to admit it. I've never been to St. Paul's Winter Carnival. But I want to. Every year I say we're going to go, but then the semester starts and classes start and the stress starts and the trip to St. Paul seems so long. But this year we're going. We're going to see the ice sculptures, snow sculptures, and the ice castle. No river shall separate me from St. Paul traditions!!
4) The City of Lakes loppet. Loppet isn't a word. No joke. This is a series of cross country skiing competitions held over a long weekend in the Lakes area of Minneapolis. Biker Boy used to live right on the finishing line. We'd sit in his nice warm apartment, eating rice pudding, and watch them glide right over the finish line.
They light candles on the perimeter of Lake of the Isles at night and everyone wanders out on the lake, walks around, skis, or ice skates. They make bonfires. You can walk out to the isle if you want (although I was scared the alligators that live there might get me?) and the whole neighborhood just walks around. It's such a wonderful community building activity. In the cold.
5) Macy's - window displays and auditorium. Okay, it hasn't always been Macy's. But they do a storybook theme in their auditorium every year. And it's free! And the window displays are so beautiful and in the spirit of the season. Great for looking at and enjoying on the neverending bus rides down Nicollet Mall or for windowshopping on the evening you go to the Holidazzle Parade!
6) Mall of America. I admit it. I love this place during Christmas. There are so many freaking people. And generally chicks with acoustic guitars singing Christmas carols. And the biggest tree I have ever seen indoors, decorated with the biggest ornaments known to man. I love the people elbowing each other out of the way, the people who are clearly from out of town who don't know where to start, and the kids who are begging for a ride in Camp Snoopy when their parents really only want to get their shopping done and get the hell out of there. I love how Biker Boy refuses to go there, so I put something on my Christmas list he can only get there. I love it.
I also love it in January and February when all the Christmas shopping is done and you can hear the collective sigh of the employees as they desperately try to get done all the chores they couldn't do when they had all those dumb customers in December. You can see the building shake off the winter blues with its skylights letting all the sun in. You can meander through all the stores without anyone pushing you out of the way. And the sales!!
7) Sunshine. In western Michigan, where I grew up, the sun doesn't shine from November through March. There is a layer of cloud cover that just never goes away. The crushing depression was enough for me to want to pull the covers over my head and just sleep those five months away.
The sun shines here almost all the time. A rare cloudy day is treated as the oddest thing imaginable. It may be bracingly cold outside, but the sun is shining so bright you need sunglasses. And it's amazing what this will do for your outlook on life.
8) Silence. I have discussed that one of my favorite things about the snow is how it muffles the sounds of the city, so it seems so much quieter than normal. There's something romantic about the city moving at a slower pace with a lower soundtrack.
Here's a partial list of what doesn't really rock about Minnesota in the winter.
1) Snow emergencies. Right. If you live in warm weather climates, this is going to be incomprehensible to you. You can't park your car on particular streets or sides of the streets on certain days in a snow emergency. They'll tow your car. I'm vigilant about this and have never been towed, but it's really easy to just not pay attention. (Like the last time when the city of Minneapolis declared the snow emergency the day AFTER the snow fell, so I thought there wasn't going to be one called, but, whoops, of course there was.)
2) Late buses. There's nothing pleasant about waiting for buses that are ten or fifteen minutes late. In the cold. While other motorized vehicles are splashing crap from the street up at you. They do their best to put warming lights in some of the busier shelters, but most bus stops don't even have shelters, let alone warming lights.
3) Cold (in other words, the month of February). Oh, God. I could live without the negative thirty degree wind chill for seven days straight that inevitably comes with February. But March brings with it melting snow and mud and grossness of spring (I hate spring because of allergies, but some people like to see the end of winter - those people are oddballs), so I do my best to stay upbeat in February because March is next. And March is worse.
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